Aguas Calientes: The Town That Is Unavoidable on Your Way To Machu Picchu

 We took the train (pretty much the only way unless you choose to hike in) to Aguas Calientes.  Russell scored awesome seats in the first row of the train so we had an up close, panoramic view of the scenery during the trip.  Unfortunately, I felt horrible the whole time so I spent much of the train ride in the fetal position.

trying to survive the bug

the greatest part about the train is that it traveled at about 10mph  which made it easy to take pictures!

look at those rapids 

a small town on the edge of the tracks

our panoramic view from the train

can't beat views like this!

Aguas Calientes, the town at the bottom of Machu Picchu where the train arrives, has a unique charm, but is no doubt the most touristy place we visited- a giant market and rows and rows of backpackers hotels mixed with restaurants peddling hamburgers, pizza, spaghetti, and mexican food...odd.

We stayed in an amazing place, Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel, which was a much needed respite so I could recover from my "bug" (literally) in comfort.  All Inkaterra hotels are based on eco-friendly values and they are very sustainable.  At this hotel they have a tea farm and fruits and vegetable farm where they get most of their produce for their restaurant.

our casita

 

living room/bedroom

yes, that is a glass shower to the left, beautiful views of nature!

"the" place for my afternoon recovery rest

our plunge pool and patio

After a rest, we decided to go on a little tea farm excursion.  We learned how tea is made from harvest to the tea cup.

Angel is showing us the perfect tea leaf- you only pick the baby leaves that have just sprouted

mmm, smells like a fresh plant...not like tea

searching for the perfect leaf

Russell's working hard

keep working Russell! I have more leaves that you!

This is a tea tree berry where tea tree oil comes from

some of the leaves I gathered

The tea hut- where the tea magic happens!

 the first step is to make a tea leaf mash

finished product! From here the leaves are cured and then slowly dried over a fire pit

Then, the dried leaves are sifted to remove any large leaves or stems...

and now its time to make the tea bags!

It's tough work!

concentrate!

He did it! 

and so did I!

Success!

We woke up early for a bird watching excursion before we headed up the mountain.  Unfortunately the excursion was a bust- I don't think our guide was into leading a 6:30am tour.  First, he left us for being 30 seconds late and second, the tour went something like this:
tour guide holds up a card with a bird on it: "this is a ____ in spanish it is called a _____ in Quechuan it is called a _____.  You might see one here."
people on tour with binoculars: desperately search for birds and see nothing but the Peruvian equivalent to the robin or maybe wren.
tour guide: stands without looking through his binoculars for birds...or looking for birds at all...or pointing out things tour members might like to see
(3 minutes pass)
tour guide: ok, we will move on
and this repeated for about 3 stops until Russell and I ducked out of the tour.


Get excited for our next post about our Machu Picchu excursion!  I was going to include it in this post but with all the pictures it would just be TOO LONG!

Cusco or Cuzco or Qusquo

 Cuzco- a bustling city, mish mash of gritty charm and kitchy tourism.  We loved this little city!  We stayed at the Arwanwa Cusco Boutique Hotel just a few blocks from the iconic Plaza De Armas.  We were in walking distance to everything we wanted to see (although each little jaunt felt like a marathon due to the altitude).  With only an evening and one full day,  we had to be strategic about what we saw and did.


Our first evening was spent exploring the plaza and ducking in and out of shops trying to figure out the worthwhile souvenirs vs. the mass produced Cancun-esque crap.  We found a wonderful little art shop where I got a little water color of a llama, several alpaca stores and a tapestry store that we would revist the next day.

Upon the recommendation of a friend, we made reservations in advance at Ciciollina, a Peruvian fusion restaurant.  It did not disappoint!  Probably our favorite meal so far.  We loved the decor, the ambiance, the staff...and the food was AMAZING!  A sweet French couple, Henry and Margo, was seated beside us and we offered them the rest of our bottle of wine (the altitude does a number on your ability to consume safely).  We then struck up a conversation and had the best time- I bet we sat for an hour chatting!  Luckily, the guy new English very well.  His parents used to send him to English speaking countries for school semesters so he could practice his English, crazy right?!

The next day, we decided that the best strategy was to follow the Lonely Planet's walking tour.  It was a great way to hit the city's high points (and low points).  We'll try to expand on the tour mostly in pictures:

Plaza de Armas in the daylight

view of the hills

windy streets

first stop on the walking tour- this is the arch of a female saint...at the moment I can't think of her name!

San Pedro market- this market is for the locals.  Consider it their Walmart

juice bars- just pull up a stool and get fresh juice!

our juice lady

finished product! Strawberry, banana, orange :)

This masked man, along with his other masked amigos stand in the middle median and whip people for not minding the cross walks...it's sort of scary and pretty darn funny! 

very old pedestrian alley with Incan walls

A lookout point in the smaller Cathedral on the Plaza de Armas

another view from the church

another view of the Plaza de Armas

on our way to the sun temple (I think)

Stop for lunch at Greens Organic 

using my STELLAR Spanish skills to order lunch

trout ceviche

very refreshing chicken soup

grilled alpaca wrap

Spanish built courtyard

Kindle Fire saved us many times!  Handy access to maps and Lonely Planet!

another beautiful view of the city

there's that plaza again!

The Spanish destroyed this Incan temple and built over the top of it, you can see the Incan walls on the bottom and the Spanish influenced cathedral on the top with the colonial style buildings to the right

terracing

more terracing

On our way up to San Blas, the artist district (where we found no good art)

We ended our day with another round of shopping and dinner at Marcelo Batata (doesn't rank among our favorites on the trip).


I can't believe we actually did all of that in one day!  The next day we would be off to Aguas Calientes and then on to Macchu Pichu!

Side note: I won't expand because it's quite disgusting, but after our long day of walking, seeing, and eating, I discovered I had contracted a bug.  After a little WebMd, ask.com, and wikipedia searching I discovered I had contracted Giardia.  If you want to know more, just look it up...I had every symptom. It's gross. The greatest part is, it takes a minimum of 3 weeks to run its course even with antibiotics, which luckily we carried in our pharmacy arsenal!


Here's a little gem to keep you laughing:

After forcing me to take this picture (and obviously giving it the best smile they've got), the little girl to your right had the nerve to tell Russell and me that the generous tip (if you calculated time spent vs. money earned) we gave her wasn't enough!